Joe Biden Welcomes Youtube’s Top Influencers to the White House

Last week, the White House invited some of Youtube’s biggest stars from around the world to join them for the Digital Influencer Summit. Past attendees played a large role in helping President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden create the ‘It’s On Us‘ campaign.

First launched in 2014, ‘It’s On Us’ is described as a cultural movement that aims to change the way people think about sexual assault. With the highest rate of sexual assaults occurring on college campuses, the White House hopes to grab the attention of today’s youth to change this.

Historically, campaigns like this would try to gather the attention of young audiences and inspire them to take action through television programs and ads. However, recent reports have shown that more and more millennials are turning to internet videos for their news and entertainment. To better understand this transition, as well as promote the cause, President Obama and Biden launched the Digital Influencer Summit.

Originally, the movement was promoted through ads featuring celebrities that were posted to the ‘It’s On Us‘ Youtube Channel. Last year, some of Youtube’s most popular vloggers and other influencers, such as Casey Neistat, K.L Cao, and Chase Jarvis, have hopped on board, appearing in the latest ad—many of whom also attended this year.

Fellow vlogger Kat Blaque can be seen recording in the background of the video.

Jeana Smith, who normally creates prank videos with vlogger Jesse Wellens on their channel BFvsGf, gave us an inside look at what her first time at the summit was like. In the video, she gives viewers a quick tour of the White House, admitting her disappointment when she discovered they weren’t actually allowed to tour the entire property.

Mac Newell turns the camera around on the people taking videos behind him.

Snapchat was quick to respond to this dismay, creating a filter called “At Least I Tried” for those who thought they were actually going to tour the White House and meet Obama. Smith also featured a small clip of Biden speaking on the topic of sexual violence, and the work he has done with the campaign to prevent it. The importance of this point is further made, as Biden ignores a phone call from Obama and asks a staff member to “tell the president I’m busy.”

Member of the White House staff hands Joe Biden a note from the President.

As of now, the few vloggers who have mentioned the summit have done so by lightly touching on the topic of sexual violence, focusing more so on the social aspect of getting together with other vloggers at the White House. But there will surely be more to come, so we’ll just have to wait and see.